Customer Reviews

A Cow on the Line and Other Thomas the Tank Engine Stories (Thomas & Friends) (Pictureback(R))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Do you know of a young child who enjoys the "Thomas the Tank Engine" segments on the PBS show "Shining Time Station"? Does this child enjoy having stories read to him or her? Then "A Cow on the Line" would be a great addition to the child's library. This book features 42 photographs from the Britt Allcroft video productions on its 32 pages. All photos are quite clear. The pictures are well placed to keep the attention of young listeners. Because the text could serve as a script for the television segments, this is a "read to me" book. A strong third- or fourth-grade reader could handle the text, but the sentence structure and phrasing is beyond beginning readers. As listed above, the book contains 4 stories. Only one features Thomas -- Percy and Edward take the spotlight in this book. The stories are true to the nature of the "Thomas" series and are a delight to read. And if your child is like the two year old in our house, he or she won't even mind if you don't sound like Ringo Starr or George Carlin (the video narrators) when you read the stories!

This book is nice because it has several stories. If you think you're going to read ONE story at a time, be advised, you'll probably have to read clear to the end of the book every time. Reading Thomas books has become our pre-naptime routine--what a great way for Grammy and grandson to bond!

A very nice story for 3-year-old fan of Thomas trains, videos,
puzzles, books and pjs.

I got this because I was tired of reading the same three stories from our other Thomas book, not because my son was tired of listening to them. Now instead of reading three stories I end up reading seven :) Oh well, I would rather read the stories to him than have him watch the TV anyway. I think that these stories are fun to read to kids. This one is a particular deal at $4 for the kindle edition because it has 4 stories not 3.

Pros:
Easy to buy and read again and again... anywhere because the kindle is so portable
Pictures are in COLOR on the, FREE, kindle for PC reading app!
Multiple stories in each book.

Cons:
Pictures on kindle are B/W and relatively small
You may get tired of reading the stories before your child gets tired of hearing them

Bottom Line:
Awesome way to pass the time in the vehicle waiting for mom and baby sister to come out of the store... or any other story time. Highly recommended!

My children like the Thomas the Tank Engine series. However, I have to agree with the other reviewer that commented on the disjointed stories. It is very frustrating reading all of these stories as one sentence doesn't flow into the next sentence. I am constantly backing up and rereading the sentences to make sense of the stories. The kids like the pictures, so half the time I make up a story to go along with the pictures.

Unlike many of the other picture books from Random House, this book is illustrated with pictures from the TV show. My sons really lit up when they recognized the stories on TV from our bedtime reading.

There are four stories:

Double Trouble
A Cow on the Line
Old Iron
Percy Takes the Plunge

We have several other Thomas books that were regulars in our bedtime reading collection. I say "were" because my sons are now 5-years old and 4-years old and both are a little too old for these picture books. Aim to read these with your 2-3-year olds.

This is a pretty bad book. It's the 2nd Thomas book, I've ever bought - and I hope most of them aren't as bad as this one. There are several stories in this book, all of which seem to have chunks of the stories missing. It is very dis-jointed. The illustrations (which are photos of the train models) do not help the reader to figure out what is going on in the story. The words(vocabulary) that are used seem to be somewhat unusual (perhaps - they are british terms) - which do not help. This book is not worth the money or the effort. Although my 3 year son doesn't seen to mind too much, it certainly is not his favorite book. Besides, it is frustrating to the adults that have to endure reading this to the children over and over.

The stories are good stories,
the pictures are neat, and
the characters are interesting.

This book, though, tends to be written
in a sort of fragmentary style,
leaving out a bit much, and often
not giving a good idea of why one
picture follows another.

On the other hand, my 3-year-old likes
it, like all her other Thomas books.